Raising poultry, particularly broiler chickens, is a major industry. A typical chicken house can be hundreds of feet long and forty feet or more wide. In the Northern states, these poultry houses have walls; however, in the Southern states, where below freezing temperatures are rare, the poultry houses can be open on the sides, although curtains can temporarily close off the sides in the event of inclement weather. The floors of the poultry house can be formed of concrete or other materials, including compacted and leveled earth.
Present poultry raising techniques have chicks grow to broiler size in approximately seven weeks. After several weeks as the grow-out of the poultry progresses, the floor of the poultry house is covered with poultry litter, which is defined as material that becomes caked and compacted with droppings and other moisture. After each batch of chickens is removed from the poultry house, the floor of the chicken raising area must be prepared for a new batch of chicks, by eliminating or reconditioning the poultry litter. Eventually, the accumulation of poultry litter will be sufficient as to require additional treatment. Preferably, the poultry litter is composted, either after removal from the poultry house or even within the poultry house before a new batch of chicks are placed therein.
Composted poultry litter is a valuable commodity that is a by-product of operating a poultry raising facility. A variety of devices have been designed for reconditioning the organic floor covering material for reuse. Other machines have been devised to windrow poultry litter to initiate the composting process. In order for the poultry litter to compost within the windrow, the caked and moist litter material must be pulverized and thoroughly mixed and fluffed to allow air to circulate through and around it to remove moisture and ammonia, and to facilitate the digestion of the poultry litter to create compost.
Poultry litter disintegrating and reconditioning machines having flail rotors for comminuting the litter are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,619,412, granted to Jack Willingham on Oct. 28, 1986, and in U.S. Pat. No. 5,078,328, also granted to Jack Willingham, on Jan. 7, 1992. In the '412 machine, a rearwardly and upwardly inclined scraper blade is positioned forward of and over the full axial length of the flail rotor. As the machine is advanced, the blade scrapes a layer of the litter from the poultry floor. The layer then moves rearwardly and upwardly along the inclined scraper blade into the operating zone of the rotor flail members, which disintegrate the litter as it moves rearwardly off the upper edge of the scraper blade. During this operation, gouging or digging of the scraper blade into the ground surface is prevented by setting the leading edge of the blade a predetermined distance above the ground surface.
The cutting and lifting of the litter from the ground surface requires not only appreciable power, but care must be used in retaining the ground adjustment of the blade. In the '328 machine, ripper teeth extended forward of and mounted on the side walls of the machine act with the forward edges of the side walls to provide a section of litter for travel between the side walls. On advance of the machine, the section of litter between the side walls is acted upon by a rotary flail unit extended between and mounted on the side walls rearwardly of the ripper teeth for disintegration and discharge back to the ground floor for reuse. The density of the discharged litter material may be varied by varying its rate of discharge from the machine.
Similar poultry litter disintegration and reconditioning machines are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,854,507, issued to Gordon Smith on Aug. 8, 1989, and in U.S. Pat. No. 5,143,309, issued on Sep. 1, 1992, to Edward Endom, where the poultry litter is scraped from the floor and elevated into the path of a flail rotor. In the '309 patent, the flails are mounted in opposing spiral paths around the rotor, while in the '507 patent, the flails are simply mounted in staggered rows around the circumference of the rotor.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,467,432, granted to Robert Lewis, et al, on Oct. 22, 2002, an implement for reconditioning poultry litter is disclosed wherein the rotor engaging the bed of poultry litter is formed of angled beaters fixed to the rotor core. The angled beaters are oppositely angled on successive rows around the circumference of the rotor core so that the litter isn't consistently conveyed to one side of the implement. U.S. Pat. No. 7,628,346, issued to John Darden on Dec. 8, 2009, the rotor is formed by convoluted flail members that extend around the circumference of the rotor core with blades folded in opposing directions.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,820,358, granted on Nov. 23, 2004, to Louie Huelsewiesche, a self-propelled machine is disclosed that incorporates an auger that gathers poultry litter from a wide swath within a poultry house and deposits that gathered poultry litter into a consolidated windrow behind the machine. The auger mechanism at the front of the machine conveys the poultry litter toward the center of the machine where the central portion of the transverse auger lifts the gathered poultry litter from in front of the auger mechanism and passes the poultry litter in an overshot manner over the top of the auger onto a conveyor belt. The conveyor belt elevates the collected poultry litter to the rear of the machine where the poultry litter is dropped back onto the floor of the poultry house in a fluffed windrow.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an apparatus that would be more effective in pulverizing caked poultry litter and creating a disintegrated and fluffed windrow of poultry litter in which composting of the windrowed poultry litter can start.